Twenty-Four

"Bye, Al," her co-workers said their goodbyes to Altria as they left the office. Two months had passed, and she had been settling in nicely. She couldn't have asked for a better working environment than where she was now. It had been past their working hours when she started putting together the donations they had collected from the company and some other goodhearted donors to be given to the next indigenous community that Astrid and Ceries would be visiting next. It had been unfortunate that Altria could not join them due to the impending 75th year anniversary of the company. Since she was still on probation and had a month before her actual employment would be confirmed, she was not entitled to vacation leave and applied for less than a week of unpaid leave to join the team in delivering the donations.

The company's anniversary event was expected to have a vast amount of memorabilia displayed in their galleries. Altria, along with the newly-hired curator and the rest of the team in charge of the gallery were expected to have a lot of restoration and preparation work for their upcoming event. She was extremely thankful to President Dong for allowing the volunteers to use her office temporarily for the packing and temporary storage of the supplies to be donated to the indigenous community. The president himself had also made a generous contribution towards the funds donated. The job of packing the items had fallen on shoulders as Ceries was away on an overseas business trip and would not be back for a few days, and Astrid was also attending a seminar overseas. Since the two most active members of their group were away, the members hoped that by the end of the week, the packing would have been completed. Today, she had been packing these items for about four hours.

Meanwhile, in Lyrid's office, the Dijun had utilised immortal magic to open a portal to the Sky Kingdom in order to play a game of go with Liansong remotely. With the high amount of magic he had put into the spell he had cast, some backfire was inevitable. The pain had been nothing to him, compared to his delight on seeing the envious looks on Liansong's face. He gloated in his glory over tempting Liansong with the sight of the sweet pastries and delights that Altria had shared with him and the group members. He also told Liansong craftily that he wouldn't mind to share it with him, if Liansong cared to pay him a visit. Liansong loved sorrowless cake, one of Fengjiu's signature desserts which she would often bring along to the Sky Kingdom in the past. Altria had offered Lyrid the desserts in thanks for his help for recommending her for the position.

Even though the Dijun was in Samsara, nothing would escape his eyes and ears, and thus he was clearly aware of the cold war between Liansong and Cheng Yu. The Dijun enjoyed himself tormenting Liansong with an offer for sorrowless cake, given the knowledge that should Liansong go to the mortal realm again after his brawl with Cheng Yu, it would just complicate matters further. After some sarcastic talk from the Dijun, Liansong gave a huff and promptly walked away from the go table without finishing the game, heading for the registry where Siming was sitting inclined over some scrolls and parchment. In his disappointment, Liansong looked at his friend and told him about how he really missed Wenchang since he was too humble every time he was in front of him and Siming. But now as the Dijun and having retrieved his lost memories of being the Dijun, he was always exhibiting his 'high and mighty' emperor attitude and frequently bullied him. Liansong assumed that the Dijun bullied him in revenge for his grudges as he, Cheng Yu and Siming had often teased Seventy-Three as an apprentice and called him names for fun.

Since it was already ten o' clock at night when she was done with packing for the day, Altria headed to an affordable fast-food chain, the Food Express, located near her office, for dinner. She had just taken her seat when she recognised a familiar face taking the seat next to her. It was Song Lin, one of her suitors in the past, who had been persistent in pursuing her even after she had turned him down many times. On the other hand, she was rather glad that none of her other suitors had been bugging her recently, giving her some time and freedom for her other hobbies.

After finishing their dinner, Lin had offered to give her a lift home as it was rather late for her to be taking public transportation home. To her astonishment, at the parking lot, she ran into Lyrid. Both men argued that it was their duty to send Altria home. Lyrid had found it a habit to wait for Altria every night and send her home, since her home was 'on the way' to his home, as he told her. Now with the competition before his very eyes, he was extremely jealous. Both men then started to shout at each other and a group of passerbys gathered to watch them. Altria was infuriated with the commotion that the two men had brought in public, which had been embarrassing to her. It ended badly with Altria striding off in her anger and taking a taxi home.

The battle was not over for the two of them, though. Unknown to Altria, this Song Lin was a demon in disguise. He was the reason why Altria had not been bothered by her other suitors. Disguised as a mortal, he was a perfect 26-year old architect, who had quite a reputation in society. With his fake identity, he was able to threaten her other suitors with merely his frightening demonic aura and his elite position and wealth. But this Lyrid had been different. Lin was aware that he was the grandson of a rich tycoon and he had hidden it well in his pursuit of Altria. Since Lyrid was rich, he could not threaten Lyrid with his wealth, and his 'aura of death' didn't seem to have an effect on Lyrid. He would have to employ a different method to scare the new suitor.

They continued their battle of jealousy, and this time Lin grabbed hold of Lyrid and cast a teleportation spell on them to transport them into a desolate place in order to frighten him. His use of magic backfired on himself, but on the other hand, Lyrid maintained his cool composure, not showing any signs of fear or shock from the sudden change in their physical location. Lin was surprised himself as well, but then it occurred to him that the man standing before him was not mortal. It was the first time that a mortal had not been afraid of his demonic aura, and even teleporting him to a different place had not triggered any reaction from him at all.

The man eyed Lin with killer eyes, before summoning his sword and unsheathing it before his eyes, watching as Lin's eyes bulged in horror as Lin recognised the huge sword that had just materialised before him. With a flick of his fingers, a lightning bolt hit Lin and sent him kneeling before him. "Don't you ever go near my empress again," had been his last words as he walked away. As the god disappeared into the darkness, a swing of his hand sent a final bolt towards the poor demon. This time, the bolt hit him right in his face, rendering his face black like charcoal and turning his neatly combed hair into an Afro-like hairstyle. Probably, this demon would know his place now.

As Altria lay in bed, the constant thought of Lyrid's disappointed face upon seeing Lin, clouded her mind. She recalled how they had met during the volunteer trip and how she had bumped into him, how they had their first 'date', how he had brought her around the company and lastly, how every workday, he would wait for her to finish up work and then have dinner with her before sending her home. Each memory had been so meaningful to her.

Just who are you, Lyrid? she thought to herself as she closed her eyes and attempted to sleep.

.....................................

Everyone was stumped by the sudden arrival of a rich and classy-looking woman clad in designer clothing along with matching jewellery and gem-studded heels. Without heeding any attention to the greetings by the junior staff members of the company, the woman directly walked into the conference room where many of the heads of departments and team supervisors, along with a few senior members were discussing and brainstorming on how the upcoming anniversary was to be held. Immediately, she walked towards Dong Yun and greeted him with a a kiss on his cheek, before hugging Lyrid and kissing him on the cheek as well.

"Baby, did you miss me?" a playful voice greeted him.

Though the members had been distracted, they said nothing when one of the department heads greeted the lady and expressed her admiration for her and Lyrid, saying they were a compatible couple and the company would definitely prosper with their combined help to the company as a 'power couple'. Severely annoyed by the woman who had just kissed him on the cheek, Dijun nevertheless hid his emotion and acted that he was glad to see the woman. He realised she had to be someone important in Lyrid's life and quickly cast a spell subvocally using only his mind, to find out her identity.

'Cassandra Chen Wan Chu. Daughter of one of the major shareholders of the group, and was in a relationship with Lyrid Dong before he got into a coma.'

The results had been so obvious that she was indeed in a relationship with Lyrid. Since he was now Lyrid, how was he going to explain everything to Altria, since she had witnessed everything with her own eyes?

Altria seemed in a trance as she was shocked after realising everything that had just happened. Firstly, Lyrid was not a regular employee, he was one of the heirs of the Dong Group of Companies and the largest shareholder, and secondly, he already had a girlfriend. At that point, she realised that she was in fact, jealous of the woman. It was her own wishful thinking. She realised that she was a silly girl who had fallen in love with Lyrid, and yet, their relationship was nothing but a mutual understanding between the both of them. In contrast to the woman, she was just from a middle-income family with a lower social status. How could she ever compare to that woman who was likely born with a silver spoon in her mouth?

As she excused herself from the meeting with the excuse that she was not feeling well, she hid herself in the restroom and contemplated her feelings for Lyrid. After working together in the company, she was gradually developing feelings for him. It had hurt so much to know that he had a girlfriend. Tears fell from her eyes and dripped slowly down her cheeks and down onto the floor. She was losing confidence in her belief that Lyrid would one day like her back. Why was this happening to her?